Proposal Requires Listing Antibiotics on Meat

A bill in Maryland would require meat labels to list which antibiotics were fed to the animals.

A recent report detailed that 80 percent of antibiotics purchased in the US go to farm animals. In response to growing antibacterial resistance, Sen. Karen Montgomery recently introduced legislation mandating antibiotics consumed by animals farmed in Maryland be identified on food labels. Under the proposed rule, poultry and meat produced and sold in the state of Maryland would be required to carry the new labels––a move that the bill’s supporters hope will curb the rampant use of antimicrobials in factory farming. A second bill, piggybacking on the proposal, calls for limiting the amount of antimicrobials fed to animals used for meat. The Senate Education, Health, and Environmental Affairs Committee is set to deliberate on the proposal.